Keep On
by JanuaryLight
Summary: No matter what happens, you have to keep going.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I don't technically have a beta, so any spelling or grammar mistakes are my own. I do, however, have the wonderful Bevfank (from Livejournal) who has graciously given me feedback and suggestions and let me bounce ideas off of her in addition to suggesting the title for this story. Huge thank you to her!

* * *

She was suspicious the first couple times it happened, but it was the third time – the third time that a wave of nausea overtook her and sent her scurrying off to make an impromptu offering to the porcelain god – that she _knew_. And the realization caused a sinking feeling in her stomach that had absolutely nothing to do with the nausea she had just experienced.

For years Gillian had been jealous of people with families, with children; with the wonderful gift that she thought she could never have. It was ironic, almost funny really, that now that she held a positive test in her hand – something that she had only ever dreamed of – she wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. Her hands were quivering as she washed them and by the time she returned to her bedroom the shaking had spread, her entire body now vibrating with a choked half-laugh half-cry.

And that was how he found her, sitting on the bed with tears streaming down her face, wracked with sobs that sent violent tremors throughout her entire body. Wordlessly, he pulled her into his arms, pressing her damp face into his shirt, anchoring her and trying to absorb some of the spasms from her body.

"What is it, luv?" He asked after the shaking had subsided into a light trembling and the sobs had dissipated into nothing more than shaky breathing.

"I-I…" she started, taking a hiccupping breath against his shirt, unsure if she could get herself to form the words. "I'm pregnant, Cal."

Cal's brow furrowed in confusion as he pulled away from her, one hand under her chin to raise her gaze to his.

"I don't understand; you've always wanted children. This should be brilliant news," carefully, he wiped some of the wetness from her cheek with his thumb, "So why the tears?"

Automatically, Cal found himself analyzing and naming each of the expressions that passed across her face. _Sadness_. _Fear_. _Shame_. _Regret_.

"The baby…" she paused, trying to find a better way to say what she had to say, "It might not be yours. It might be Alec's."

"A-Alec's?!" The thought of Gillian carrying that man's child after all he put her thought sickened and infuriated him at the same time. "When did you…?!"

"Just a few days before we got together."

It made sense. In hindsight, he remembered that she had seemed… off for a few days, but he hadn't asked, and she hadn't said anything. Until now.

He wanted to be mad. He wanted to be mad **at her**. He wanted to blame her, to yell and throw insults and generally react and even over-react in any way he could but the emotions on her face told him not to. From what he could see she already felt absolutely miserable about sleeping with her ex-husband. And given his past… relationship with Zoë, he really didn't have any place being upset with her.

"He showed up at my door one night," she continued, "He said he wanted to apologize and to talk. He seemed sincere, so I let him in and…"

"And you slept with him," Cal finished. She looked down. _Shame_. "Hey, there's no shame in that, luv. God only knows I've done the same with Zoë more times than I care to admit." He laughed humorlessly.

"But it was different with you and Zoë, you…" She trailed off, abandoning her sentence. "This was different. I- we had sex, but I didn't want to, Cal. I didn't…" she bit her lip again and squeezed her eyes shut, tears trickling down her face once again.

To Cal, those words were a simultaneous slap in the face and punch to the gut that nearly knocked the wind out of him.

"You're saying that he forced you? That he raped you?!" Once the word was out of his mouth it seemed to act as a trigger, changing his disbelief and shock into hardened rage and disgust. He was so upset that he barely even registered his hand curling into a tight fist. "Bastard! That bloody son of a bitch! I'll –"

"No! Cal," she grabbed one of his hands, forcing his attention back onto her, "it wasn't rape. Alec did _not_ rape me."

"What are you talking about?" his accent was thicker with his lingering anger, "He had sex with you, but you didn't want to; that sounds like rape to me."

"It wasn't," she assured him, "He didn't force me and he didn't hurt me. I – That night I'd had a few drinks with you before going home."

"Yeah, I remember that." They had both shared a few glasses of scotch after a case before they left the office for the evening.

"And when Alec showed up I had a few more because… I had a feeling that even though he was coming to apologize, it wasn't a conversation that I was particularly eager to have. Anyways, we talked for a while and then he… kissed me. I told him that we shouldn't, that it was a bad idea and I didn't really… want to, but he kept going and eventually I…" Her hand went to her forehead and her eyes to the floor: _shame again_. But only for a moment. "Afterwards, we both agreed that it would never happen again and he left. It was a mistake, Cal."

Gillian's explanation of the event eased most of his rage, but not all of it. "He never should have kissed you."

"I know, but that's actually not what I'm really worried about," she sighed, "Regardless of whose baby it is, I want to raise this child, Cal. I want that more than almost anything else I've ever wanted in my life. And I'm so scared that I'm not going to get a chance to do that. You know my past; you know that I've never been able to get pregnant before. I'm so scared that I'm going to lose this baby, Cal." She bit her lip, fighting futilely against the tears that were forming fiery pinpricks behind her eyes.

For a long moment there was nothing but silence. Cal watched her expression; it seemed stuck on the same mixture of fear and sadness, like a car stuck in neutral. He nearly opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when realized that he had absolutely nothing to say that would make her feel any better; he knew that she was right. Neither of them were experts on the subject, but they both knew that Gillian's chance of miscarrying were probably very high. Finally, from the deep recesses of his mind, he managed to come up with something.

"Tell you what, luv; why don't you make an appointment with your doctor and see what they have to say. Until then, let's try to think positive thoughts, yeah?" He suggested, having decided that a wait-and-see approach was probably their best option.

"I'll try," she wiped at her eyes and managed a smile, "Besides, worrying won't help anything."

"Right you are," he patted her knee and stood up, "What do you say we get some dinner and call it a night, eh?"

"Alright. Sounds like a plan. But I get to pick out the dessert," she said, and he grinned, glad that she was starting to cheer up.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This is mostly doctor stuff. Not very exciting, I'm afraid. Sorry!

But major thanks to Bevfank (Livejournal) for giving me info and letting me bounce ideas.

* * *

"You're sure you don't want me to go with you?" Cal asked for the umpteenth time as he helped Gillian slip into her coat.

Today was the day of Gillian's first appointment with her doctor. Ever since she had scheduled it she had been explaining and re-explaining to Cal that she wanted to go the appointment on her own, just the first appointment. But Cal didn't seem to understand; he kept asking if she was sure, as if she was going to suddenly change her mind. She knew that he was only trying to show her that he was there for her, but she knew that already and his constant reminders were starting to get just a bit irritating. Or maybe that was the hormones…

"I'm sure." Gillian replied giving the same answer she gave every time he asked. "It's just a preliminary appointment, Cal. It'll be fine. I'll probably be back in an hour, an hour and a half tops. Besides, you have that meeting to go to."

Cal pulled a face and waved it off. "I can always delegate that to Loker and Torres; that's half of my job, telling other people to do things for me. But, seriously, if you want me to come with you it's no problem."

"We've gone over this," she reminded him, sighing, "and we agreed that I would go to the first appointment by myself and after the first appointment, after we confirm that I actually am pregnant and I talk to Alec, **then** you can start coming with me."

"I know, I know," they had indeed gone over this several times, "It just hard for me, luv. I feel like I'm not really doing anything, and I hate that. I hate feeling like there's nothing I can do."

"Just go to your meeting and try not to worry, okay? I'll see you in an hour or so."

"Alright. See you later, darling." He gave her a gentle peck on the corner of her mouth. "Good luck."

But hopefully, she thought as she waved goodbye and left, she wouldn't need luck.

* * *

Gillian Foster was not an impatient person; most of the time she had no problem with waiting. But as she sat in Dr. Monica Anderson's office waiting for the test results from her blood and urine samples, she found that she couldn't stop glancing at the clock and fidgeting. She was very fidgety. Though she reasoned the fidgeting wasn't entirely her fault as she had been made to change into one of those flimsy paper gowns which were awkward and uncomfortable to wear.

She couldn't have been sitting there for more than 15 minutes, but it felt like hours and looking at the clock wasn't helping. It seemed to be taunting her; omnipresent ticking daring her to look back each time she looked away. And every time she did she was dismayed to see just how little the hands seemed to have moved.

Finally, just when the second hand was starting to seem as if it were moving just as slow as the minute hand, the doctor returned.

"Hey," Dr. Anderson greeted, flashing Gillian a smile that was probably supposed to make her feel better but only succeeded in making her realize just how nervous she was, "Good news: judging by the level of HGC in the samples you gave us, I'd say that you're about 5 weeks pregnant. Congratulations."

"Oh my God," Gillian breathed. Even though she had already sort of known, it still sent incredible thrill through her to hear it confirmed by a doctor.

The doctor smiled again briefly, and then her expression turned serious. "This **is** great news, but I'm going to be honest with you Gillian; given your age and the difficulties you and your husband have had with conceiving in the past, I'd say that this is going to be a pretty high-risk pregnancy. You have a much greater chance of miscarrying or having complications during the pregnancy or delivery than most other women."

_High risk._ Gillian swallowed. Even though she had been bracing herself for them since before she had even made the appointment, the words still affected her.

"But I don't want to scare you. A lot of things can be done with medicine and technology, so I don't want you to be assuming the worst possible outcome in this, though I do want you to be prepared for it. We'll just have to wait and see how things go, okay?"

"I understand."

"Now, have you started taking pre-natal vitamins?"

"Yes." In spite of her doubts about the accuracy of the reading, she had started taking them right after she had gotten the results of the home test.

"Alright. Well, I'm sure you have questions, so…" Dr. Anderson looked at her expectantly.

"Right! Actually, I was wondering, um," Gillian paused and moistened her lips, trying her best not to seem self-conscious about her question; after all, it didn't really matter what her doctor thought about her personal life, it was none of her business, "When and how would I go about getting a paternity test done?"

There was a small pause between the question and the answer where Gillian could tell that Dr. Anderson was wondering what had happened between her and Alec, but it was gone just a quickly as it appeared.

"Well, there are a few kinds of paternity tests. There are a few post-natal tests like blood tests and cheek swabs, and then there are some pre-natal tests."

"I think I'm more interested in the pre-natal tests; I'd like to know as soon as possible." Yet another thing Gillian was afraid of: the baby being Alec's. She didn't have to be a lawyer to know that if he was biological father, assuming the baby survived, he would have rights as a parent. And she knew that – unless she somehow got him to sign away his paternal rights, which she highly doubted would ever happen – it would be difficult, to say the least, to try and work something out with him, especially with Cal in her life. (He was, after all, the jealous type; he said as much himself.) On top of that, it would be a horrible act of irony for her to be pregnant by Alec now that they were divorced after spending an entire marriage trying and failing to conceive.

"The earliest you can have a paternity test done is at about 10 weeks through Chorionic Villus Sampling, which is where we use a needle or tube to collect chorionic villi from the wall of the uterus. From that sample we can determine the DNA of the fetus and use that to determine paternity. We also use it for several other standard genetic screening tests, so we can determine the paternity then if you'd like."

"Okay, that sounds… that sounds good." Really, she wasn't entirely sure how it sounded; her mind was still reeling a little with the actual confirmation of the pregnancy and the possibilities of everything that could go wrong. Adding this information on top of it was almost an overload, but she had asked for it.

"Anyway, we'll worry about that when we come to it. For now, let's just get your next appointment in order." Dr. Anderson flipped open her appointment book, "Usually in the first trimester I meet with patients every three or four weeks, but because of your higher risks, I think I want to see you in two weeks, is that okay?"

"Sure. It sounds fine." Two weeks was good, it meant less time to spend worrying about questions that she was sure she would come up with once she left the room and cleared her head a little. That and she was sure that Cal would insist on coming to the next appointment and more or less interrogating poor Dr. Anderson.

"How does two weeks from tomorrow at around… four sound?"

"Perfect." That way she and Cal would only have to leave the office a little early, and if things continued to be as slow as they had been in the past few days, that wouldn't be a problem at all.

"Alright, so I'll see you then."

* * *

As Gillian left the office a few minutes later she reached into her bag and grabbed her cell phone, gripping it so tightly that her knuckles started to turn white. Finally, after several moments of intense internal debate, she flipped the phone open and dialed the number of the one man she had put off calling for as long as she could: Alec.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I know it's been a while, and I apologize for that. I honestly did plan to update sooner, but as you all know, I was clearly unsuccessful. But, if it's any consolation, this chapter is longer than the last two chapters put together.

* * *

"_You've reached Alec Foster, I can't take your call right now but please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks."_

"Hey, Alec, it's Gillian. Listen, I have something that I – that we really need to talk about… um, call me back as soon as you get this, okay?" For a few moments, even after she had snapped her phone shut, she wasn't sure whether she was relieved or disappointed that Alec hadn't picked up. On one hand, it meant that she didn't have to worry about explaining the situation to him until later. On the other, she knew she was simply postponing the inevitable.

* * *

Walking back into the Lightman Group a few hours later, Gillian was nervous. While Dr. Anderson hadn't said anything that had particularly surprised her, it was still both thrilling and terrifying to have her confirm what the home pregnancy tests had already told her. Of course, working at the Lightman Group meant that she had to try harder than she would with average people to conceal her anxiety. Although she knew that Cal had given Torres and the rest of the staff the 'mind your own business' spiel on multiple occasions, she also knew that they were only human and were bound to ask questions and talk amongst themselves regardless of what their bosses said.

According to Heidi, Cal's meeting was apparently taking longer than he had expected, so he wasn't back yet. Since Loker and Torres were working on a project of their own, the building seemed to be quiet and under control, so Gillian decided to take her temporary reprieve as an opportunity to catch up on some paperwork that she and Cal - mostly Cal - had fallen behind on.

Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible to focus on paperwork while simultaneously trying to combat morning sickness. And if she thought she had felt sick a few weeks ago, it was nothing compared to what she was feeling now. That meant it was very difficult for her to focus on reading people's body language and micro expressions, which really hindered the past few investigations she had worked on. For example, the distracting and sudden onset of nausea had caused her to lose focus on a key piece of footage that she was analyzing with Loker and as a result she had missed the partial fear expression that the suspect had flashed when talking about his job. Given the fact that the man was an accountant, the fear ended up being crucial to their case, because the job of an accountant isn't typically something that instills fear. Thankfully, however, Loker was able to notice what she had missed, and they were able to complete the case without any further issues. But that small mistake led her to realize that she couldn't be so distracted during work, so she had tried several different 'remedies' for morning sickness, but in spite of what she had read, sipping ginger ale and nibbling on saltines was doing absolutely nothing to settle her stomach.

She was just returning from her second trip to the bathroom when Cal returned an hour later. He quickly fell into step beside her as she headed back to her office.

"How was your meeting?" She asked, pretending to be oblivious to the question she knew he was dying to ask.

"Eh," he waved his hand, "you know, boring as usual. How was your appointment?" And there it was.

"It was alright I guess, nothing I wasn't expecting," she paused and waited until they were safely behind the door of her office before continuing, "I'm already about five weeks along. But it is a high-risk pregnancy, and Dr. Anderson told me that we should be... prepared in case things go wrong."

Repeating the words was painful. It was emphasis on a point that she was already well aware of and thinking about far too often. Indeed, she had already had several nightmares about suddenly and tragically losing the baby – though she wasn't sure that there was any way other than tragically to lose a child. Often when she woke she found that she couldn't sleep again for the rest of the night, and passed the wee small hours of the morning by caressing her still-flat stomach and thinking about anything that didn't have to do with children until her alarm rang.

Cal allowed her a moment of silence, noting how her voice tightened on her last sentence and the way she didn't seem to know what to do with her hands once she sat down at her desk. "Did you ask about the paternity test?"

"Yeah, the earliest testing we can do is at ten weeks, so about five weeks from now." She paused a moment before adding, somewhat suddenly; "And I called Alec."

"Yeah? What did he say?" Cal tried to sound nonchalant, like he didn't really give a damn one way or another how Alec felt, but it was a wasted effort because Gillian knew him better than that.

"I don't know yet. I got his voice-mail, so I left him a message and I'm waiting for him to call me back. I told him it was important, so hopefully he'll call tonight."

Cal nodded and leaned casually against her desk, studying her. Her skin was pale, and her hair was slightly out of place, but she didn't look disheveled enough that anyone else would notice - after all, she was very good at keeping herself together - but Cal could tell that she wasn't feeling well.

"You alright, luv?" He asked quietly, not that there was any need to lower his voice other than wanting to be gentle with her. He had a tendency to speak – and act – harshly, and he knew it.

"Yeah, just a little morning sickness."

"Well, you look ill. Do you want me to take you home?"

"Cal, if I went home every time I felt a little sick, I wouldn't get anything done for the next few months, and then the entire company would be behind because we all know that you don't keep up with the finances." She said pointedly, throwing in a little 'tsk' and a wag of her finger for good measure.

"Are you trying to say that I don't do my fair share of the work around here, Foster?" He asked, pretending to be offended. He relished in the small grin it earned him before dropping the playful tone. "But, seriously, if you want to go home I can take you home. You went to the doctor today, so nobody would have any reason to be suspicious if you said you were feeling under the weather. Besides it's almost three o'clock and, barring a disaster, we're not going to have to do much for the rest of the day anyway."

"Exactly," she agreed, turning his point against him, "which is why I should take advantage of this time to catch up on the paperwork that you've been slacking off on." She teased.

"Alright then, if that's how you'd like to spend your afternoon, be my guest," he chuckled.

"Honestly, Cal, I'll be fine." She assured him, her tone serious once again.

"If you say so," he trusted that she would be, but he also had a feeling that she was playing down how bad she really felt, "anyway, I'm thinking of cutting out of here around five or five thirty, so I'll see you then?"

"Sure, but before we go back to your house, can we stop by my place? I have a few things I want to pick up."

"Whatever you want. Maybe… would you prefer to stay there tonight? I know you haven't spent a night at home in a while."

Even before they found out that she was pregnant, Gillian and Cal had been spending a lot of time together, mostly at Cal's place. At first she had only spent the occasional night over there – they didn't want to rush things – but after Gillian broke the news, they had unanimously decided that she would spend most of her nights over there. So now Gillian spent every night that Emily wasn't there at Cal's house. Cal said it was because he wanted to be there in case something went wrong, and though she wasn't sure that was the entire truth, Gillian wasn't about to complain about the company. Besides, Cal's bed was a lot warmer than hers – or maybe that was just because it had Cal in it…

"No, your place is fine. I just need to grab myself some more clothes and maybe another pair of shoes for work."

"Alright then, see you around five."

* * *

As expected, Cal met Gillian outside her office just a few minutes after five. Much to Cal's relief, he noted that she had regained most of the color in her cheeks, and no longer looked miserably nauseous.

"Feeling better?" He asked quietly, wary of anyone who might be in earshot.

She nodded. Together, they exited the building with a wave to Heidi, and headed out to Gillian's place.

"I might be a minute, so why don't you come in with me?" Gillian suggested when Cal parked the car in her driveway a few minutes later. He obeyed and sauntered behind Gillian into the house.

Strangely enough, Cal hadn't spent much time in Gillian's new place. Actually, he had only visited her here twice: on the night he spent in her guest room and once more when he had picked her up for dinner. Needless to say the only thing he was familiar with in her new home was her front room and her guest bed (Though, come to think of it, he had shared breakfast with her in the kitchen and spent a few minutes in her bathroom, but he hadn't been paying attention to details at the time and she hadn't had been quite finished decorating at the time.).

Foster's house was a bit different than he expected; he had assumed that she would be the type of person to go for the lighter, more cheerful colors, like yellows, purples, or light blues. Instead, she surprised him (as she seemed to do on a fairly regular basis, as if trying to keep him on his toes) with the dark blue of her living room and her choice of a sage green in the kitchen. The room that he was really curious to see, her bedroom, still reminded a mystery to him.

"You want to grab anything for you?" Cal asked, following her into her bedroom, trying to look casual about it. Being the skilled expert he was in body language, he was pretty sure that he had pulled it off, but the eye-roll Gillian gave him as she flopped down onto her bed told him that she was onto him.

"Comfy?"

"Very," he grinned wolfishly and bounced up and down on the mattress a few times, testing it, "if I'd known you'd had such a high quality mattress we would've been spending more time here."

She chuckled at his remark and headed to her closet, grabbing a few dresses, some pants and a few blouses. Cal paused and took a moment to take stock of her room. He knew that there was a lot that one could tell from a person's decorating tastes, and even though he had known Gillian for years, she still managed to surprise him, so he couldn't help wondering what kind of surprises waited for him within her room.

Her walls were a sort of light teal color, similar to that of the tropical waters one often saw in travel brochures. Her bedspread – a very soft, high quality bedspread, though he expected no less from Gillian – was ivory with delicate embroidering at its edges. The furniture – the bed, a bookshelf with alphabetized contents, a desk with stacks of the latest psychology books and journals, a nightstand, and an intriguing chest with a golden latch – appeared to be slightly weathered but sturdy, none of them seemed like they came together but they were all made of the same dark wood and they all fit together perfectly.

Actually, everything in the room seemed to fit perfectly together… everything except one. There was a lamp on the nightstand that wasn't quite in with the rest of the décor; while most of the things in the room were a neutral or teal color, this one lamp was red and stood out like a swollen thumb.

"So what's the story behind the lamp?" He asked, figuring there had to be a reason for it. Gillian was always perfectly put together in everything that she did – appearance, filing, paperwork, decorating – and he knew there had to be a reason for her to have a lamp that so obviously clashed with the rest of the room.

"Hmm?" Her voice was almost lost to the ocean of fabric that was her exquisitely organized closet, "Oh, the red one? It used to be in my living room back when Alec and I were still together. I brought it with me, but I still can't find a place for it. I figured I could use it to read by in here, for the time being."

Cal nodded and looked at the lamp wondering why, out of all the things she and Alec had shared in their home, she chose to bring that one with her.

Suddenly, as was often the case with such things, Cal was jolted out of his innocent musings by the chime of Gillian's doorbell.

"Expecting company?" He asked, slowly pushing himself up off her ever-so comfortable mattress.

"No…" She furrowed her brow, trying to think of whom it could be, "I'll get it, Cal."

"Alright…" He sunk back down into her mattress, but only for a moment, as his curiosity quickly got the better of him, and seconds later he was following Gillian down the hall to the front door.

"Alec!" Gillian exclaimed nervously. Had she been looking, she would have seen Cal straightening up slightly at the mention of her ex-husband, instinctively drawing himself up to appear larger and more intimidating. "What are you doing here?"

"I got your message and I was in the neighborhood, so I decided to stop by. You said you needed to talk to me?" Alec, as Cal had always thought, was absolutely miserable when it came to concealing body language and lies, and his ability to control the tone of his voice was almost non-existent. Then again, Cal thought that about pretty much everyone besides himself, but either way, it was very unlikely that Alec had 'just happened' to be in the neighborhood.

"Well I meant… on the phone…" Flustered, she glanced over at Cal, who shrugged.

"Sorry. I'm not interrupting your dinner or anything, am I?" He asked, stepping forward and craning his head around the door to see what Gillian was looking at. "Oh, hi there Cal. Long time no see."

Cal forced a smile – thought it ended up looking more like a grimace - and nodded his greeting.

"Uh no, Cal and I were just… discussing some things." Gillian said, closing the door behind Alec, who was already half way into the living room.

"Then let's get right to business so that I can get out of your way here. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I…" Gillian opened her mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say. She could have sworn that she'd had at least half a dozen carefully worded explanations worked out in her head no less than half an hour ago, but in that moment she couldn't recall a single one.

"Wait, maybe we should talk in the kitchen," Alec interrupted, glancing not so subtly at Cal and buying Gillian a few more precious seconds to think.

"No, I think here is fine." She responded, meeting Cal's eyes. "Why don't you have a seat?"

Alec settled himself in an armchair that was identical to Cal's, but also happened to be the piece of furniture farthest away from him. Gillian perched herself on the edge of the sofa and took a deep breath, steeling herself as she prepared to take the straightforward approach to the situation.

"Alec… I'm pregnant." She announced and after, as with the first time she said it, there was silence. Cal and Gillian watched the expressions that flitted across Alec's face as the news sunk in, waiting for her his reaction. After a few moments, the information seemed to finally register, and his face lit up with excitement and hope.

"Oh my God, Gillian, that's wonderful! It's practically a miracle! I- I can't believe –" Alec laughed and ran a hand through his hair, and suddenly Cal was struck with the slightest pang of guilt. Alec was genuinely happy and it wasn't hard to see that he really did want to be a father. But this baby probably wasn't his and in spite of the fact that it wasn't really his fault, Cal couldn't help but feel partially responsible for that. Even Gillian couldn't help smiling just a little at his excitement.

"So, what… what does this mean for us?" Alec asked, "I mean, do we share custody or… what do you want to do, Gillian?"

At this point Cal cleared his throat, reminding Alec and Gillian that not only were they not the only ones in the room, they weren't the only ones in the situation.

"Actually, Alec, I'm… I'm not sure that you're the father." Gillian said, looking directly into Cal's eyes even though she was talking to Alec, who was quick to connect the dots.

"Oh… you two are…." He looked back and fourth between Gillian, jealousy, hurt, and the slightest bit of anger in his face, "I, um… congratulations, then I guess. Though I'm a little disappointed I wasn't invited to the wedding, but I guess I can understand why I wouldn't be at the top of your guest list."

"Oh, no, no," Gillian corrected quickly, blushing, "we're not married."

_Yet_, Cal added silently.

Judging by his expression, Alec wasn't to thrilled with that particular bit of news, but he made no comment.

"But you've been… seeing each other?"

"Yes," Gillian answered, "but that's part of why I didn't want to tell you over the phone. You have a right to know, but I didn't want to get your hopes up…"

"And on top of all that, the doctor is worried that there's a high risk of something going wrong with Gillian's pregnancy." Cal added.

"Oh…" Alec's look of dismay was genuine, as was Gillian's. "But if… if everything goes okay, you're going to get a test to see which one of us is the father, right?"

"Yes."

"And… if I'm the father?"

"We'll cross that road when we get to it." Gillian answered patiently. "Okay?"

Both Cal and Gillian stood, trying to indicate to Alec that they didn't want to be rude – not that Cal had any problem with being a little rude – but they were ready to show him the door.

"Before I go," Alec started, receiving the message loud and clear, "Cal, would you let me talk to Gillian alone for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure." He agreed hesitantly, but only after looking to Gillian, who nodded and tipped her head back toward the bedroom.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay?" She told him. He frowned, but left the room anyway.

But he didn't go back to Gillian's room. Instead, he stayed in the hallway between the living room and the bedrooms, listening intently for any bits of conversation he could pick up. Unfortunately for him, Alec and Gillian had dropped their voices to low murmurs, so he could barely make out the tones of their voices; let alone what they were saying. He could tell, though, that their voices were getting a little more animated, but he couldn't tell if it was from excitement or anger. He found out soon enough though, when seconds later he heard a distinct noise that He recognized as the sound of someone being struck across the face – hard.

"I can't believe you would even suggest that!" He heard Gillian exclaim.

"I'm sorry, Gill – I just…"

"I think you should leave." And that, Cal assumed, was as good enough an invitation to re-enter the room as any.

He got there just in time to see Gillian swing the door shut after Alec – sadly, it didn't hit the sorry man in the ass, as Cal hoped it would. Cal leaned against a spot on the wall, unable to suppress a grin as he asked:

"You slapped him?"

Gillian smiled in a sheepish but proud way. "Yeah. I might have over-reacted a bit."

"What'd he say?"

"He implied that I was sleeping with you during our marriage." She shrugged, "I shouldn't be surprised though, Alec… was a little insecure before I met him."

Cal frowned, then laughed.

"What?" Gillian asked, starting to get defensive. "He was! Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just –"

"No, no. I'm laughing because you actually slapped him! That seems like such a melodramatic thing for you to do."

"Keep it up and you'll be next." She threatened, but she did so with a grin.


End file.
